Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bowling lane maintenance apparatus moving on the bowling lane along the length thereof to effect a maintenance and thereafter traversing to the next bowling lane across a division capping therebetween to effect a similar maintenance and more particularly a detecting mechanism for a lane dividing end cap (also called a division capping end herein) for stopping such a maintenance apparatus on the adjacent bowling lane in place.
The traversing motion of the bowling maintenance is required by a single maintenance apparatus which is adapted to clean and condition a number of bowling lanes in a continuous manner. The dimensions of a bowling lane is standardized to hold the same distance between the division capping ends of each adjacent bowling lanes. Thus, the traversing maintenance apparatus can sense the division capping end of a bowling lane to stop at the exact center of the adjacent bowling lane.
In the prior art, the detection of such division capping ends has been made by means of a pendulum type detector. More particularly, the bowling maintenance apparatus comprises a body on which a pendulum is mounted in a plane perpendicular to the length of bowling lanes. A distance between the surface of the bowling lane and the lower extremity of the pendulum is designed to be smaller than a distance between the surface of the bowlng lane and a division capping end of the same. When the maintenance apparatus is transversely moved from one bowling lane to the adjacent bowling lane, the pendulum is engaged at its lower extremity by the division capping and inclined about its fulcrum while moving on the division capping. The pendulum is disengaged from the division capping at its end face and then returned to the vertical position of the pendulum. The body also comprises a micro-switch for sensing the vertical position of the pendulum. When the pendulum is disengaged from the division capping end and swung to its vertical position, the micro-switch is actuated by the pendulum to detect the position of the division capping end.
If the height of the division capping end from the bowling lane is varied, however, such a pendulum type detector cannot detect the exact position of that division capping end due to the varied timing at which the pendulum is moved away from the top of the division capping.